Members of the planning meeting discussing programs for the upcoming year.

Vienna, Austria, December 14, 2018 – Members of the Partnership for Peace Consortium (PfPC) Regional Stability in the South Caucasus Study Group (RSSC SG) and Regional Stability in South East Europe Study Group (RSSEE SG) met at the Austrian National Defence Academy in Vienna 13 to 14 December to plan programs for the upcoming year. The Study Groups regularly provide support to improve networks in the field of security policy and seek to promote a peaceful, strategic and stable community in their respective regions. This is mainly done by policy recommendations addressing decisions makers in the respective regions.

Several years ago, the members of the RSSC SG for instance addressed the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan and recommended to keep communication channels – especially informal ones – open; not to miss opportunities for dialogue and to establish "formal and informal" conflict resolution platforms. With the opening of a new communication channel agreed to in October 2018 by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, this recommendation has been put to practice.